Transporting Live Sand

[dazjazz]

Hey Guys (and Gals!)

Has anyone had any experience packaging and transporting live sand? Obviously the issue here is keeping a good diversity of the critters alive for 24hours or so.

We have a number of problems in Aus in creating the live sand bed. Firstly our customs laws prohibit importing any invertabrates... so buying detrivore kits is not a possibility.

Also, collecting live sand for those of us who live in the south of the country is not an option as the waters are too cool and it is doubtful the critters would live in the reef temperatures.

We could post sand down from the tropical reefs up north but no one has established a way to do this successfully yet.

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

When I had my LS mail ordered to me, it came double bagged in a styrofoam cooler. They may have replaced the air in the bag with O2.

That's it--they didn't do anything interesting to it at all.

Ty

 

[Anonymous]

24 hours is not a concern. The critters in there are not THAT fragile.
Good luck
Jim

 

[reefer_jones]

I agree, 24 hours should not be a big deal.

If it's cold, buy some of those chemical heat packs. Insulated boxes will keep things cozy for a while...

 

[dazjazz]

Thanks guys,

anyone else?

 

[Buck]

There is also the problem of abrasive action of the sand. Due to the vibration and motion in shipment there will be a significant mortality due to mechanical abrasion. The sand particals are sharp! There is a school of thought that this can be minimized by reducing the amount of water as much as possible. The added benifit here is you are not having to pay the cost of all that weight!